TRUE HEART: Gisborne Intermediate basketballers won the Super 11 competition in Rotorua. They are, back (from left): Ryan Walters (coach), Sol O’Connor, Safin Tuwairua-Brown, Jonah Whitley, Quaydon Chaffey-Kora. Front: Dom Wilson, Lykhin Poihipi, Dante Hihi, Rekai Hayne. Absent: Oliver Keepa-Fitzsimons. Picture by Liam Clayton
TRUE HEART: Gisborne Intermediate basketballers won the Super 11 competition in Rotorua. They are, back (from left): Ryan Walters (coach), Sol O’Connor, Safin Tuwairua-Brown, Jonah Whitley, Quaydon Chaffey-Kora. Front: Dom Wilson, Lykhin Poihipi, Dante Hihi, Rekai Hayne. Absent: Oliver Keepa-Fitzsimons. Picture by Liam Clayton
Super stuff — the Ryan Walters-coached Gisborne Intermediate School boys’ basketball team played superbly to win five of six games — and the Super 11 championship — in Rotorua. Two trials with 30 players in mid-July proved sufficient to turn out a team which with quickness, athleticism and skill overcameopponents on an eye-to-eye level with the 1.9m Walters.
“We were tiny compared with other teams but applied pressure defence, which utilised the boys’ fitness and hustle — that’s how we won games,” said the coach.
“We had a core of four players — Dante Hihi, Safin Tuwairua-Brown, Quaydon Chaffey-Kora and Dom Wilson were amazing. Sol O’Connor, who’d never played basketball before, was outstanding. And Oliver Keepa-Fitzsimons, Lykhin Poihipi, Jonah Whitley and Rekai Hayne — we couldn’t have done it without them.”
Gis Int beat Whakatane 35-10, Kaitao 43-12 and Te Puke 24-17 before suffering their only loss of the tournament, 19-31 v Tauranga. Game 5 saw them beat Rotorua 22-21 in the semi-final and Mount Maunganui 31-23 in the final.
Kaytlin Walters, Gisborne Intermediate’s teacher-in-charge of basketball for the last six years, was delighted with the result.
